Additional Resources

Affordability Counts

Affordability initiatives aren’t only about adopting free or low-cost textbooks. It’s easy to build a course around freely-available content on the web. This page lists many options, from Coursera to TEDTalks to Khan Academy, and everything in between.

“TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world. On TED.com, we’re building a clearinghouse of free knowledge from the world’s most inspired thinkers — and a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other, both online and at TED and TEDx events around the world, all year long.” Learn more.

“The College Open Textbooks Collaborative, a collection of twenty-nine educational non-profit and for-profit organizations, affiliated with more than 200 colleges, is focused on driving awareness and adoptions of open textbooks to more than 2,000 community- and other two-year colleges. This includes providing training for instructors adopting open resources, peer reviews of open textbooks, and mentoring online professional networks that support for authors opening their resources, and other services. The focus of these efforts could save students millions of dollars by increasing the number of open high-quality textbooks available online as alternatives to expensive printed textbooks sold by publishers.” Learn more.

“HippoCampus.org is a free, core academic website that delivers rich multimedia content–videos, animations, and simulations–on general education subjects to middle-school and high-school teachers and college professors, and their students, free of charge. Teachers project HippoCampus content during classroom learning and assign it for computer labs and homework. Students use the site in the evenings for study and exam prep. Users do not need to register or login to use the site.” Learn more.

“Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. Our math missions guide learners from kindergarten to calculus using state-of-the-art, adaptive technology that identifies strengths and learning gaps. We’ve also partnered with institutions like NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to offer specialized content.” Learn more.

“iUniv is a service and platform that formulates social learning by using visual and auditory content provided online by institutions such as universities and other organizations. Self-learners can enjoy these contents (video and audio) and use the Fusen (foo-sen) to study and share with their fellow users.” Learn more.

“We scour the Internet for the best quality textbooks issued under open licenses that allow for printing. Instead of finding a list of 500+ books, you’ll find a short list of books we feel are really adoptable and ready to use in a college classroom.” Learn more.

“At Lumen Learning, our purpose is to help higher education institutions improve affordability, access and student success by supporting wide-scale adoption of open educational resources (OER). We provide low cost open courseware, guidance and support to help institutions transition high enrollment courses to OER.” Learn more.

“George Washington University School of Nursing wants to inspire nurses to provide high quality, compassionate healthcare and transform healthcare through innovative education, research, policy, and practice. Develop entrepreneurial leaders and educators who pursue quality and advance the profession while improving the health and well-being of people and communities locally, nationally, and globally. In doing so, the university builds on the mission and core values.” Learn more.

“The primary goal of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) is to create awareness of OER and help colleges to identify, create and/or repurpose existing OER to improve teaching and learning and make education more accessible for all learners. We are seeking the support of faculty to identify, review, evaluate, and make available high quality, accessible and culturally open educational resources.” Learn more.

Study.com’s self-paced video courses are created by the best teachers and designed to help students meet their educational goals. They will help students improve grades, better understand concepts from class, and prepare for tests. Most video lessons are 10 minutes or less, so students get the information they need in a fast and fun format. Learn more.

At edX, students can learn from the world’s best professors and leading industry experts through captivating lectures and presentations, and build knowledge and expertise with interactive labs, experiments, and assessments. Students can connect with learners from around the globe in easy-to-use discussion forums, and take courses on their own schedule anytime, anywhere. Learn more.

“MyOpenMath is designed for mathematics, providing delivery of homework, quizzes, and tests with rich mathematical content. Students can receive immediate feedback on algorithmically generated questions with numerical or algebraic expression answers. And it can do so much more, providing a full course management system, including file posting, discussion forums, and a full gradebook, all designed with mathematics in mind.” This website can also help facilitate web-enhanced, hybrid and on-campus courses. Learn more.

“The Open Course Library (OCL) is a collection of shareable course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments designed by teams of college faculty, instructional designers, librarians, and other experts. Some of our materials (also called open educational resources, or OER) are paired with low cost textbooks ($30 or less). Many of the courses can be taught at no cost to students.” Learn more.

“We are a global network of educational institutions, individuals and organizations that support an approach to education based on openness, including collaboration, innovation and collective development and use of open educational materials. The Open Education Consortium is a non-profit, social benefit organization registered in the United States and operating worldwide.” Learn more.

“Coursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to take. Choose from hundreds of courses created by the world’s top educational institutions. Financial aid is available.” Learn more.

“Saylor Academy’s mission is sustained by the continued evolution of an open educational ecosystem, and we are dedicated partners in this movement. Saylor’s commitment to the open education ecosystem is founded not just on open educational resources and open source learning technologies, but also on open access to credentials, and ongoing open learning opportunities.” Learn more.

“Udacity wants to bring accessible, affordable, engaging, and effective higher education to the world. We believe that higher education is a basic human right, and we seek to empower our students to advance their education and careers. Education is no longer a one-time event but a lifelong experience. Education should be less passive listening, no long lectures and more active doing. Education should empower students to succeed not just in school but in life.” Learn more.

“We are dedicated to transforming…education so all students can thrive in their studies, careers, and adult lives. We are focused on practices and programs that help students acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, skills and beliefs to achieve their full potential.” Learn more.

“The University of California, Irvine, launched its OpenCourseWare initiative in November 2006. Since then, it has rapidly grown to become one of the premiere sites in the United States. Today, its YouTube channel is viewed more than a million minutes per month.” Learn more.